


AMAM (Assigned McCoy at Away Mission)

by spacetrek



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, but that's fine with me, extremely disjointed and rambling because i wrote the majority at 4am, no betas we wing it like jim kirk would want us to, this turned into a triumvirate fic when i wasn't looking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22318264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacetrek/pseuds/spacetrek
Summary: The situation began, as many things did, with an order from his captain.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Spock, Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Spock
Comments: 16
Kudos: 60





	AMAM (Assigned McCoy at Away Mission)

The situation began, as many things did, with an order from his captain.

“Spock, stay with McCoy.”

It was not the assignment Spock had expected. He was accustomed to remaining with Kirk (Jim, the captain had insisted upon being called Jim) on away missions, as his captain of just over a month had a propensity for finding danger on the most innocuous of errands.

Also—if Spock were human, he might admit to some dislike of their new CMO.

As Spock was not human, all he admitted was a general wariness of a still-unknown quantity.

He could not fault the doctor’s professional capacity, Spock thought as he trailed after the newest member to Kirk’s little troop. His professionalism, certainly, but not his skill and dedication to his work.

Several minutes later, when Spock finished collecting atmospheric data and looked up from his tricorder, McCoy was examining a plant with an intensity Spock had previously thought reserved for unpleasant medical procedures. “Doctor?”

No answer.

Curious in spite of himself, Spock drifted closer. “Does this plant have some significance?”

McCoy’s head jerked up, startled. Spock squashed the immediate, unpleasant observation that a Starfleet officer should be more aware of his surroundings.

“What?”

“This plant. Does it have some significance?”

“Huh? Oh, no, not really.” McCoy grinned. “Kinda looks like green beans, though, don’tcha think?”

Spock did not sigh, but it was a near thing.

*****

And so it went.

“Spock, you’re with McCoy.”

“Keep an eye on Bones, would you Spock?”

“Bones, stay with Spock.”

There was, admittedly, a certain logic to it. McCoy was a healer, not a soldier, and as the _Enterprise_ went deeper and deeper into space the doctor revealed a tendency for injury that rivaled even Jim’s.

Starfleet regulations also said that civilians and medical personnel should be attended when in an uncertain situation at all times. It made sense to assign the strongest member of the crew to facilitate this.

Spock would simply have to content himself with this arrangement, and trust that Jim would step in if he was unable to solve whatever emotional problem the doctor was currently having.

If Spock was honest (and a Vulcan always was), it did not require as much intervention from Jim as he had previously thought it would.

McCoy was intelligent, and had a surprisingly logical mind when he so chose. Spock had not previously believed that the concept of intuition was anything more than a cover for mistakes, but the doctor’s ‘intuitive deductions,’ while oxymoronic and almost always outside the scope of Spock’s understanding, were frequently correct.

Perhaps intuition was less a word humans used to justify odd decisions, and more a very human kind of logic.

McCoy seemed intent upon proving Spock both right and wrong on that count, as he did on most others, so Spock resolved to consider other humans as well.

“See, Spock, I don’t agree with you.” McCoy was trotting alongside to keep up with Spock’s quick pace (they had both been. . .consumed, in their observation of a native animal, and now had only two-point-four minutes to make it to the rendezvous point).

Spock felt the usual and not entirely welcome mix of annoyance and reluctant curiosity at that statement. “And why is that, Doctor?”

“Well, for one thing—"

Jim, apparently also late for the rendezvous, bellowed a greeting from up a tree and stopped the debate before it really started.

Spock felt slightly cheated. He pushed the feeling away, considering instead how they were going to explain their lateness to Starfleet.

*****

McCoy was — and he would hate to be labelled so, which was somewhat amusing — fascinating.

He was, simply stated, one of the strangest people Spock had ever been acquainted with. He did not fit into any of the categories Spock usually assigned coworkers and acquaintances (and yes, friends), and every time Spock thought he might finally understand, McCoy went and did something that proved him wrong once again.

McCoy had once offered a colorful, but not entirely inaccurate, statement on the nature of people who assume things, and Spock was forced to agree.

He wanted to be discontent with this state of affairs, but that thing inside him — the thing that had driven him out into the universe in the first place, looking for answers — was thrilled.

*****

“I am not disagreeing, Doctor, I am only saying—"

“You just said you thought I was wrong! That is the dictionary definition of disagreeing, Spock, and—"

“I think that your approach is wrong, if not necessarily—"

“And what’s wrong with my approach?”

“It is from a mostly medical standpoint, rather than—"

“I’m a _doctor,_ of course I’m gonna—"

“Your understanding of theoretical physics—"

“Is fine, so watch your step—"

“Your understanding of theoretical physics is far less advanced than mine—"

“Far less—!”

“Therefore, I am offering my help on this project.”

Stunned and skeptical silence.

“If I thought you incompetent, Doctor, I would have insisted upon your removal from the project. I do not that think that. I am offering to assist you, not overrule you.”

More silence, but less skeptical.

“My proposal does require an answer, Doctor.”

“Spock, I think you just managed to insult me twice and compliment me once in the same sentence.”

“It was merely a suggestion. If you do not—"

“Hang on, I didn’t say that.” That strange bouncing movement. “It’s better than a kick in the pants, for sure. All right — I’ll be in Lab 3 once I get off my shift.”

“I will meet you there.”

*****

At some point — Spock was not sure when, and this troubled him less than it probably should have — Jim stopped having to tell Spock to stay with McCoy. Spock would already be there before the captain even gave the order.

At some point after this first point, Jim stopped giving the order altogether. It was simply assumed that, unless told otherwise, Spock would have an eye on the doctor.

It was not solely his responsibility to keep McCoy out of trouble, of course. Jim frequently remained with them, and would occasionally send Spock off on some other objective.

Sometimes Jim and Spock would have to salvage a mission alone.

And, needless to say, Spock and McCoy sometimes had to save Jim Kirk from himself.

It was not a bad arrangement.

*****

“Captain, I must request permission to beam down with you.”

“Negative, Spock. Bones and I have got this one.”

“Got separation anxiety already, Spock?”

“Vulcans not do not suffer separation anxiety, Doctor.”

“Sure, of course not. Don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Perhaps—"

“Gentlemen, that’s quite enough. Beam us down, Spock.”

*****

When the call for beam up came twenty minutes later, Jim sounded halfway frantic.

A medical team was dispatched to the transporter room.

Despite McCoy’s frequently accusations to the contrary, Spock was not always pleased to be right.

*****

Jim’s face was still streaked with sweat and dirt. His eyes were red-rimmed and distant.

“I should have listened to you.”

“You could not have known they would attack so immediately.”

Jim scrubbed at his face. As his hands were still dirty, and bloody in a few places from deep scratches, he merely succeeded in smearing the grime around. “I told him to stay put, Spock. I was only gone two minutes — just long enough to find the edge of the dampening field.”

“The doctor rarely listens to such instructions.”

A mirthless laugh. “I know. He saw someone get stabbed—in the riot. He went to help.” Jim was talking faster now, almost distracted. “I was running back and Bones was kneeling over the guy in the street—the other guy was screaming at him to move so he could finish the job and Bones—" Jim stopped like he’d run into a wall, swallowing hard.

Spock felt strangely cold inside. “He did not move.”

“No.” Jim’s shoulders slumped, apparently unable to keep the pretense of strength. “No, he wouldn’t leave a patient. And he took a punctured lung for it.”

Spock looked back at the unconscious doctor. Such stillness was disquieting in one usually so animated. “Did the patient survive?”

Jim shook his head. He gripped McCoy’s limp hand in both of his and rested his cheek against the mattress. He looked exhausted.

Spock looked at McCoy’s other hand. It was his left — the one with the ring. Odd, for a Starfleet officer to wear jewelry. Even married officers rarely wore their rings on duty.

He suddenly wished he could ask McCoy about the ring. Obviously, he could not.

Jim fell asleep, and Spock kept watch until a nurse came by to check on McCoy and force Jim to clean himself up.

*****

“It’s nice to know you care, Spock, but I manage okay without you breathing down my neck. Actually I’d say I manage better.”

“I am not breathing down your neck.”

“I know that you know what I mean, so I’m not even gonna touch that. Just give me some space.”

“The X’Tal—"

“Aren’t exactly friendly, I know, but six inches of personal space isn’t too much to ask for. You’re fast enough to make that up.”

“If you are attempting to placate me with flattery—"

“As if that’d ever work on you. And have I ever flattered you, Spock?” Silence. “That’s what I thought.”

“If we are attacked, you will find cover.”

“If we’re attacked I’m gonna do my _job,_ Mr. Spock.”

The silent equivalent of a Vulcan sigh. “And I will do mine.”

*****

The mission continued.

It was a ‘group effort’ these days, as McCoy called it; the three of them together, and their success increased exponentially when they stayed that way.

Spock did not believe in fate, but he believed in the logic of the universe.

Perhaps this was the greatest sign of that logic he was ever going to see.

*****

“Do you and Bones have any real conversations?”

“‘Real’ is not a measure of a conversation. If a conversation is had, it is real by default.”

“All right. Do you have any discourse that is not in the form of an argument?”

Considered pause.

“We share scientific discussion that would likely fall under the definition of ‘spirited.’”

“You’re really working those semantics, aren’t you, Mr. Spock.”

“As you say, Captain.”

“I’m not upset, Spock.” A smile. “I’m glad you two have found something in common.”

“I’m gone five minutes to grab my stuff and you’re already conspiring with Spock.”

“Nonsense, Bones! We’re all conspiring together.”

“Against whom, Captain?”

“Whomever you like, Mr. Spock. Energize, Mr. Scott.”

*****

Spock had joined Starfleet to find answers.

He had found some that he sought, and many to questions he had not even thought to ask.

Perhaps those were the greater measure of his life.

*****

“Doctor?

“What’s up, Spock?”

“I have a question for you.”

“What if I told you to take it elsewhere?”

“I would not, as you are only being contrary for the sake of it. Also, you are the only person who can answer this question.”

“Well now I’m curious. Ask away, Mr. Spock.”

“Why do you wear that ring?”

Startled silence.

“If you would prefer not to answer—"

“No, no, it’s—you just surprised me a little, that’s all. You really want to know?”

“I believe I said that, yes.”

“Don’t be smart, Spock.” Fingers twisting the ring. “See, years ago, this ring belonged to my Mama. . .”

The story digressed into several other, smaller stories, but McCoy did not stop talking, even when Jim walked in, and Spock did not stop listening.

Jim’s hand brushed Spock’s shoulder as he took a seat off to the side, and McCoy smiled at them both. Spock moved his chair a little closer.

The story continued.

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a study of Spock and McCoy's relationship via their habit of lurking near each other all the time, but Jim worked his way in there late last night when I was writing. Honestly? Good for him
> 
> I took the bit about McCoy's ring from DeForest Kelley's story about the ring because it's a really sweet story


End file.
